British Summertime has arrived. I know this because the six racemeetings scheduled for Saturday are at Newmarket, York, Ascot, Chester, Salisbury and Hamilton Park, without a jump in sight, and the BHA has sent out an update on its “hot weather policy”.

The policy details the steps that could be taken to abandon or rearrange fixtures in the event of “red” extreme heat warnings from the Met office. Now, that’s not a likely occurrence as far north as Kelso from mid-September onwards, so I didn’t dwell too long on the e-mail which landed in my inbox with a beep on Tuesday. I presume that the instructions run something along the lines of: remember to press the “abandonment” button on the racing-admin website before bunking off home to eat strawberries and watch Wimbledon.

Of course, tennis-on-the-telly is another classic signal that British Summertime is here, together with cold beer in the fridge and strawberries in the garden. And, following the dry Spring and recent hot sunny weather, what a crop of berries we have here in the Scottish Borders…

Given my complete lack of time for gardening between March and May (when we’re busy with racemeetings at Kelso from Morebattle Hurdle Day to Ladies Day) my own strawberries are grown with negligible effort and are of the alpine variety – small and sweet and bursting with flavour, not unlike Kelso Racecourse itself.

Because when it comes to racecourses, like berries, it’s my considered opinion that small ones are more juicy. While there’s little doubt that Newmarket, Ascot, Chester, and York (where our selection is Al Qareem in the John Smith’s Silver Cup) will attract Saturday’s largest crowds, the evening fixtures at Salisbury and Hamilton Park are as sweet as they come: caring staff, friendly atmosphere, and a keen attention to entertaining detail.

At most hot Summer racemeetings there will be giant cooling fans, producing a soothing cool cloud of water vapour through which the horses can be walked and teams of equine welfare staff with water buckets at the ready. The effective cooling of horses is an important part of the planning process for every raceday throughout the year, as we mitigate the risk of heat stress after a race. At Kelso we don’t typically require misting fans but, even during Winter, we’ll have large tanks of water available at various places around the racecourse, including at strategic points on the track.

Whatever you’re doing this weekend, enjoy the weather (Summer might not last long) and stay cool: remember to take sun block with you when venturing out and put plenty of beer in the fridge now for later.